The AI gambit — leveraging artificial intelligence to combat climate change: opportunities, challenges, and recommendations

In Josh Cowls, Andreas Tsamados, Mariarosaria Taddeo & Luciano Floridi (eds.), Vodafone Institute for Society and Communications (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In this article we analyse the role that artificial intelligence (AI) could play, and is playing, to combat global climate change. We identify two crucial opportunities that AI offers in this domain: it can help improve and expand current understanding of climate change and it contribute to combating the climate crisis effectively. However, the development of AI also raises two sets of problems when considering climate change: the possible exacerbation of social and ethical challenges already associated with AI, and the contribution to climate change of the greenhouse gases emitted by training data and computation-intensive AI systems. We assess the carbon footprint of AI research, and the factors that influence AI’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in this domain. We find that the carbon footprint of AI research may be significant and highlight the need for more evidence concerning the trade-off between the GHG emissions generated by AI research and the energy and resource efficiency gains that AI can offer. In light of our analysis, we argue that leveraging the opportunities offered by AI for global climate change whilst limiting its risks is a gambit which requires responsive, evidence-based and effective governance to become a winning strategy. We conclude by identifying the European Union as being especially well-placed to play a leading role in this policy response and provide 13 recommendations that are designed to identify and harness the opportunities of AI for combating climate change, while reducing its impact on the environment.

Links

PhilArchive

External links

  • This entry has no external links. Add one.
Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Artificial intelligence and climate change: ethical issues.Anders Nordgren - forthcoming - Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society.
Climate Change and the Ethics of Technology.Vera Tripodi - 2023 - In Pellegrino Gianfranco & Marcello Di Paola (eds.), Handbook of Philosophy of Climate Change. Springer Nature. pp. 957-973.

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-06-09

Downloads
1,745 (#7,225)

6 months
110 (#50,355)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?